Book Ramble - One of Us is Lying

Hi everyone! Welcome to Nox Reads, I'm "Nox", and this is my book ramble for One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus, a solid PROBABLY WON'T REREAD. 

"That's the kind of person you can get away with killing: someone everyone else wants dead."

TRIGGER WARNING: Death, alcohol, drugs, mentions of suicide

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S P O I L E R - F R E E  T A L K 

Right off the bat, I have to say: I had to read this book. It's the Breakfast Club with a murder in it, how could I not? And of course, they make a joke about it in the book (Simon saying that they're all walking 80's movies stereotypes). It was such an interesting concept to me, a combination of some of my favorite things: retellings, mystery, and murder (in stories. Obviously I do not condone actually murder. Please don't murder people. This has been a PSA.)

So for those who don't know, the story is similar to the Breakfast Club- a brain, an athlete, a princess, a criminal, and an outcast walk into a bar detention one day. The twist? One of them doesn't make it out alive. Simon, the outcast, runs the school's top gossip app About That and dies from an allergic reaction to peanuts. Seems simple, right? The problem is, peanut oil was specifically placed for Simon to drink. He was murdered. 

The rest of the story follows the other four students- Bronwyn, Nate, Cooper, and Addy- as the police's main suspects. We read from each of their points of views, and see as they try to clear their name and find who really killed Simon while dealing with the secrets that Simon had on them.

If you've read this blog before, then you know that the characters are the most important part of the story to me. I can't get through a story if the characters are bland (Twilight). I have to say that for the beginning, I was interested in two characters. And one of them died in the first chapter. My favorites for this book were Bronwyn, Nate, and Simon. Cooper and Addy did grow on me, but it took about half the book. Addy mainly because I initially found her annoying (she develops and grows as the book goes on, so I think this is intentional) and Cooper because he wasn't in the book as much as the others, and when he was it was mainly about baseball (I am not a sports person, and I prefer basketball anyway). Nate and Bronwyn were engaging and interesting from the start, and I love that Bronwyn is Latina. I also love her relationship with her sister, and how protective and close they are. Nate was just interesting as a whole. He's the criminal, but since of course we can't be rooting for a bad guy, he's a justified criminal. Either way it worked, I was completely invested in everything that happened to him. I felt for him.

I don't have much left to say that isn't spoiler-related, except I can't stand the police in this story. I swear, Bronwyn was a better detective than them, and while yes, I understand that they were the obvious suspects, some of their "evidence" was flimsy at best.

Anyways, on to the SPOILER TALK. If you haven't read One of Us is Lying, it's honestly worth a read. And then you can come back and watch me rant! Because boy oh boy do I have a lot to rant about. 

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S P O I L E R - T A L K 

As I said, I can't stand the Bayview police in this story. The part that irked me the most was when they felt that Bronwyn was obviously the murderer because they found a comment that she had posted two years before telling Simon to go die after he socially dragged her little sister. Why on earth would she wait two years to kill him?

Also, can we just talk about how messed up Simon was? He created his own gossip app, and he ruined the lives of at least two people that we know of: Maeve and Leah. Not to mention, another student dropped out of the school because of him! Leah tried to kill herself! And we know that he was into these weird school shooting forums which, I have to wonder, have to be monitored. So the Bayview police don't look any further into Simon's life to see what he might be linked to, at the very least to see if there were any other potential enemies besides the murder club. Have they even seen Law and Order SVU? They dig into everything the victim has been involved with. Olivia Benson would not have needed Bronwyn and the others to hand them everything in a nice little bag, I'm sorry.

Of course, I have to mention the twist at the ending: Simon had really committed suicide and wanted to drag down the other four with him. Honestly, I never thought that this was an incredibly interesting twist, and I liked that Addy's ex played a part in it.

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Overall, I did like the story, but I wouldn't reread it. If you've read it, who is your favorite character? I think Bronwyn is the best.

Thank you so much for reading! Have a great day!

~Nox